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Special prosecutor will seek
new ways to go after Echeverria


Mexico City / EFE
07/29/2005

The Mexican special prosecutor probing crimes committed during the so-called "dirty war" against leftists and real or suspected government opponents will seek new ways to bring former President Luis Echeverria to trial, along with other former officials, for a 1971 massacre of student protesters.

The head of the special prosecutor's office, Ignacio Carrillo Prieto, told a local radio station on Thursday that he would seek to bring new charges other than genocide against Echeverria and former Interior Secretary Mario Moya.

The federal judge hearing the case, Herlinda Velasco, ruled on Tuesday that the evidence presented by prosecutors did not warrant indictments of Echeverria and Moya for genocide.

Under Mexican law, genocide can refer simply to systematic mass killings rather than the attempted extermination of an entire national, ethnic or other such group.

Mexico 's Supreme Court had ruled last month that the statute of limitations did not preclude the indictment of the octogenarian former head of state and his erstwhile aide for the June 10, 1971, killing in Mexico City of between 17 and 40 peaceful demonstrators.

Relying upon the Supreme Court decision, the office of the special prosecutor probing the dirty war had asked Velasco to hand down indictments against Echeverria, who governed from 1970-1976, and Moya.

"There is no way around this matter of the crime of genocide. Now, we are going to try other things" to indict the former officials for the massacre, Carrillo said, adding that other crimes might have been committed in relation to the massacre by the paramilitary group known as "The Falcons."

Despite the ruling, Carrillo said that his office would continue trying to clear up crimes committed during the dirty war.

The 83-year-old Echeverria is also facing charges in another trial for his responsibility in another massacre of student protesters on Oct. 2, 1968, when he was interior minister.

The dirty war was waged from the late 1960s to around 1980 under Presidents Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, Echeverria and Jose Lopez Portillo.

Hundreds of peasant leaders and leftists were persecuted - and scores were killed - by Mexico's security apparatus during the repressive period.